BECAUSE OF JACOB’S SHOULDER AND THE POSSIBILITY that Hank might be coming back with them, the men
took the buggy to town. Harrison drove while Jacob leaned back in the seat, trying to stay out of the drizzle. But
the leather bonnet was old and sagged in several places. Everywhere it sagged, it leaked, making tiny waterfalls.
Jacob Dalton had been in a dark mood all day and was tired of acting as if the fight he’d had with Nell didn’t
bother him. He hated being confused almost as much as he hated being angry, and right now he was both.
“You want to talk about it?” Rand asked politely but without any great interest.
“No,” Jacob answered, not even trying to pretend that he didn’t know what the bookkeeper was talking about.
The people inside the house might not have been able to hear what he and Nel had been talking about on the
porch, but the windows probably provided a grand view.
“She loves you, you know?” Harrison acted as if he hadn’t heard Jacob’s answer. “Everyone knows.”
“I said I didn’t want to talk about it.”
“You’re right,” Harrison admitted. “I’d be the last person to talk about courting a woman. I only courted one in
my life, and she tried to have me killed. So I’m no good at advice.” He drove for a few minutes before adding,
“But even I could give you a few pointers.”
Jacob didn’t really want to talk, but he had a feeling Harrison did. So he might as well herd the conversation
away from Nel and him. “How’d the woman you courted try to kil you?”
“Have me kil ed,” Rand corrected. “She wasn’t the type of woman to get her hands dirty doing anything like that
herself.”
Jacob leaned up a little. “All right, tell me.”
Harrison hesitated.
“Look, if my love life is in the pot for discussion, so is yours.” It was so dark Jacob couldn’t make out Harrison’s
face, but he had a feeling the bookkeeper was smiling.
“Fair enough,” Harrison answered. “I’m the second son of a big cattle rancher down by Victoria. My father runs
cattle over five counties.”
“Start with the truth,” Jacob said before he thought to stop himself.
Harrison laughed and didn’t take offense. “Let me finish. After I was born, my mother had enough of my father
bossing her around and moved to Chicago. When I was old enough, I saw him summers for a few weeks a year,
and my mother hated even that. He wouldn’t support her, and she had to work long hours to see that I got
educated. Even though I was a baby when we left, my father seemed to take it personal. He never cared much
for me.”
“When my mother died, I had to quit school and go live on the ranch. My father treated me with indifference,
but my older brother hated me. Since I hadn’t grown up riding, I was of little use, until my father discovered I
was good with figures. Then he wanted me with him, not to do the ranching, but to keep the books.”
“Which made your brother angry to be splitting some of his old man’s attention?”
“Right. To make matters worse, we both fell for the same girl. I don’t know about him, but I still believed in love
and fell hard.”
“And?”
Harrison paused as if he’d never told the story before. “She came to my room one night. We made love in the
dark without saying a word, but when it was over and she was curled in my arms, I whispered how much she
meant to me. Something about the midnight stars and blue sky, if I remember correctly, I was only seventeen.”
He handled the buggy with skil as he maneuvered around rivers of mud. “Before I understood what was wrong,
she started screaming and accusing me of things. It seems she had entered the wrong room and now the deed
was done, it was all my fault. My brother was the one who was supposed to get lucky that night.”
“My brother rushed in, a gun in his hand and yelling at both of us. All I remember was a lot of screaming and
crying, and then the gun firing.”
Jacob stopped the story. “Was your finger on the trigger?”
Harrison shook his head. “No, but I was trying to get the gun away from my brother. The bul et hit her cheek and
left an ugly scar. I was arrested for rape and attempted murder. At the trial, I was foolish enough to think she’d
tell the truth, and it would al be cleared up as a misunderstanding. But she didn’t. She said I pul ed her into my
room, had my way with her, and then tried to kil her. She cried on the stand, begging the jury to give me the
death penalty.”
“And your brother,” Jacob asked already knowing the answer.
“He stood with her, as did my father. I was given ten years of hard time. The first few years in prison, I didn’t
much care if I lived or died. I had no family, and the only girl I’d ever loved hated me. I worked on a gang building
roads and fell asleep so exhausted at night I didn’t even care that I was filthy and my hands were usually
bleeding.”
“What turned you around?”
“By accident, the foreman noticed my math skills, and I was moved to his office. He was promoted out of prisons
to the state offices in Austin. Within a year I went from wearing prison blues to wearing proper clothes and
accompanying him on inspections. He didn’t want anyone to know I was serving time. He knew al about building
things, but for me it was all about the numbers. When I got out, he offered me a job, but I wanted to make it on
my own, leave al my past behind.”
“Did you go back home?”
“Once. The train stopped in Victoria, and I spent the night at the hotel. While I was trying to decide if I should go
out to the ranch or not, I spotted my brother in the hotel bar. He didn’t recognize me and was so drunk I didn’t
bother introducing myself. I watched him losing at poker from across the room. He’d aged twenty years in the
ten years since I’d seen him. Times were hard for me, trying to find work as a bookkeeper with my record. But,
after watching him, I figured I got the lesser of the sentences.”
“What about the girl?” Jacob asked as they pul ed into town.
“My brother married her.”
Jacob smiled, understanding Rand Harrison clearly for the first time. “So what’s your advice for me?”
“Spend a little time courting Nell,” Harrison said. “I don’t think ordering her to marry you will work.”
“You’re probably right, but I don’t have any idea where to start.” He quoted Rand. “Saying something about the
midnight stars and blue sky didn’t work too wel for you.”
Harrison shrugged.
As agreed, they pul ed up near the saloon. Before Jacob talked to Sheriff Parker, he wanted to see what the
townsfolk were talking about. If there was trouble brewing, he’d learn about it here first and not secondhand
from the sheriff.
They stepped out into the rain. Jacob went inside as Rand tied the horse.
The place was quiet except for a drunk trying to pick out a song on the piano. The ranger took a table near the
back and watched the crowd. Harrison circled the room once before joining him so that if anyone was watching
it wouldn’t look like the two men came in together.
They’d made plans to meet Parker here when he made his last rounds. The sheriff had talked with them earlier
and said the posse hinted they’d decided to leave tomorrow morning and that there had been no trouble.
“Maybe no one wants to start anything,” Harrison guessed. “Mobs usual y take hours to build up enough
courage to act.”
Jacob agreed, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was about to happen. Three of the men from the
posse were huddled over by the bar, and every time Jacob looked in their direction, they were watching him.
The cowhands gambling tonight didn’t seem at al interested in talking about the prisoners across the street.
They seemed far more interested in losing their money and heading home.
Parker came in and joined them. “It’s so quiet around here tonight I’m starting to get worried.”
“I know what you mean.” Jacob ordered a round of whiskey.
“The two wounded men from the posse left on the evening train with a buddy each riding with them. That
leaves eight to haul the three outlaws back to Fort Worth. If they leave on the first train, they’l make it in before nightfall with any luck.”
“Eight should be enough men to watch three prisoners.” Jacob noticed two more men who looked like they
were with the posse come in and join their friends at the table. They were al young and green, he noticed,
wearing their deputy badges on their coats.
“Their captain, name of Kelly, wants to talk to you, Dalton.” Parker said. “He still thinks you should let them take
Hank in the morning.”
“Not a chance,” Jacob answered.
“I told him that, but he claims the kid wil be better protected with them than he wil be with you.” Parker
rubbed his whiskery chin. The stress of having the killers in his jail was starting to wear on him. “The captain
wants to talk to you alone. Told me he wouldn’t be needing me to come along, like I was one of his foot soldiers
or something.”
“Where does he want to meet?”
“Down at the end of the street in that little café close to the station. It’s a rat hole, but he claims to like the chili.
He’s probably waiting there now.” Parker seemed to chew on the words a while before he added, “He’s been a
great help to me these past few days. Takes his job real serious.”
“But?”
Parker shrugged. “Nothing, just a feeling I get that he’s a man used to getting everything his way.”
Jacob stood. “Well, I guess I’ll go over and correct that notion right now.”
Harrison also stood, planning to fol ow.
Jacob raised his hand. “If he wants to see me alone, then I’ll go alone.” He didn’t see any need to tell the others
that the captain’s reason probably had to do with offering a bribe. Jacob had dealt with some men who thought
the law could be bought. He enjoyed straightening them out. “Rand, if you’ll go on over to the jail with Parker
and start getting the kid ready to move, I’ll join you in no time.” Jacob pulled a paper from his pocket. “I already
fil ed out the forms and signed them. Have the boy ready to leave by the time I get there.”
“What you going to do with the kid?” Parker asked.
Jacob shook his head. “For tonight, I’m not sure, but before the rest of the gang gets on that train, I plan to be
out of range of any trouble. It may take me a while, but my plan is to get Hank to Fort Worth in one piece and to
stand beside him during the trial. It’s the least I can do for him.”
Parker shook his head. “He’s not in very good shape. My deputies swear they didn’t touch him, but someone
landed a few blows on him last night. I found him this morning on the floor of his cell. Whoever did it left a gag
in his mouth so he couldn’t cry out for help. He laid there in pain most of the night, I figure, and the doc
wouldn’t come treat him this morning. To tell the truth, he looked scared to death when I even suggested it. I
think whoever got to him must have threatened to kil him if he said anything.”
Jacob glanced at Harrison. “No matter what, we’re taking him tonight.”
Harrison nodded. “I’ll do whatever I can for him while I’m waiting for you.”
Trying to control his anger, Jacob walked down the street. The rain had final y stopped, but clouds stil hung low,
making the night soupy and black. Jacob couldn’t escape thoughts of how the kid must have looked when the
sheriff found him al bloody and gagged. He wouldn’t be surprised if they’d beat the boy up, hoping he’d be too
hurt to travel. Or maybe they let his father get to him. If the pa was mad about the boy not finding them, he
could have done the beating. As big a man as he was, it wouldn’t have taken much to leave the boy on the floor
too hurt to move.
As Jacob walked, he noticed even the light in this part of town seemed dingy. The wooden walks in front of the
stores were narrower and sometimes in poor condition. He found the place the sheriff had told him about and
went in, anxious to get this meeting over with.
When he asked for a man named Kel y in the run-down café, Jacob was surprised to find him sitting at a table
with Walter Farrow. They were a mismatched pair: Kelly tall and lean with a weathered face, Farrow rounded
and pale. But their eyes were the same: cold and hard.
The leader of the posse stood and introduced himself as Anthony Kel y, an employee of the railroad. Jacob took
measure of the man and guessed him to be far more than he claimed. He had the look of a Pinkerton, or maybe
an ex-Pinkerton who’d left to make deals concerning protection on his own.
Walter Farrow tried to act as if he and Kelly were great friends, but his effort fell flat. He excused himself, saying he had to run, and hurried away.
Kelly offered Jacob a chair.
The ranger didn’t miss the four men sitting two tables away watching as closely as if he and Kelly were a play.
No one else was in the place, and Jacob wasn’t surprised. The smel coming from the kitchen made him lose any
appetite he may have had.
“We’re in the same line of work, Ranger Dalton. Catching bad guys.”
“It appears so.”
Kel y laughed as if Jacob had said something funny and continued, “I understand you were hurt in your efforts to
stop the outlaws.”
“Correct.” Jacob didn’t like the way Kel y made it sound as though Jacob had failed somehow. If he hadn’t taken
the horses, the gang would have been well into Oklahoma Territory by now. But he figured Kelly knew the facts
as wel as he did. There was no use in talking about it. “The sheriff tel s me you wanted to see me.” Jacob got to